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Subject(s) in AMA Manual of Style

Voice

Stacy Christiansen

In the active voice, the subject does the acting; in the passive voice, the subject is acted on. In general, authors should use the active voice, except in instances in which the actor is unknown or the interest focuses on what is acted on (as in the following example of passive voice).He was shot in the abdomen and within 10 minutes was brought to the emergency department. If the actor is mentioned in the sentence, the active voice is preferred over the passive voice.

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